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A.Word.A.Day--apostate apostate (uh-POS-tayt, -tit) noun One who abandons his or her religion, principles, political party, or some other allegiance. [From Middle French, from Late Latin apostata, from Greek aposta (to stand off).] Look up apostate in Visual Thesaurus. "These independent artists rue the perfidy of apostate millionaires, and moan about pop stars who abandoned the true faith." Sasha Frere-Jones; Madvillain Redeems the Pretensions of Independent Hip-hop; New Yorker; Apr 12, 2004. "Publicly, Saudis will be of two minds: Some will see Ferial as an apostate (in addition to being a woman of doubtful loyalty) because she has entered political life and claims to hold sway over men; and because she lives in a different environment and supports American values that permit equality between the sexes and open the doors to ethnic and religious minorities." Hatoon Al-Fassi; A Saudi Woman Uses American Elections to Break All the Taboos; The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon); Apr 24, 2004; X-Bonus Men cannot see their reflection in running water, but only in still water. -Chuang Tzu, philosopher (c. 4th century BCE)

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